The Coral Triangle Maps of the Month is a bi-weekly email running from August-December 2012 that showcases various maps that highlight the diversity and uniqueness of the Coral Triangle region. The maps also show some of the pressing issues that are threatening this very important resource considered the epicenter of the world's marine biodiversity. The maps are generated by the Coral Triangle Atlas team at The WorldFish Center.

Click map to enlarge

Map 09: Reefs at Risk in the Coral Triangle

Click the image to download the report

The Coral Triangle is regarded as the global epicenter of marine biodiversity and a global priority for conservation. It contains the highest coral and fish diversity in the world with 76% (605) of the world's coral species and 37% (2228) of the world's coral reef fish. By comparison, approximately 8% of coral species (61) are found in the Caribbean, and only 7% (420) of the world's coral reef fish species live in the Hawaiian Islands.

Unfortunately, threats to coral reefs in the Coral Triangle are also much higher than the global average. More than 85% of reefs within the Coral Triangle Region are currently threatened by local stressors such as overfishing, pollution, and coastal development, whereas only 60% of global reefs are similarly threatened. Nearly 45% of the Coral Triangle's reefs are at high or very high threat levels. When the influence of recent thermal stress and coral bleaching is combined with these local threats, the percentage of reefs rated as threatened increases to more than 90%, which is substantially greater than the global average of 75%.

Reefs at Risk Revisited in the Coral Triangle is a report produced by WRI in close collaboration with the USAID-funded Coral Triangle Support Partnership, and its spatial data can also be found in the Coral Triangle Atlas. WRI and ReefBase have a long standing partnership which has recently been extended to include the Coral Triangle Atlas. WRI, ReefBase and the CT Atlas all share the same vision of making spatial data on reef resources and threats available to the public for better management of the world's oceans.

The Coral Triangle Atlas is an online Geographical Information System (GIS) database providing scientists, governments and NGOs with a view of spatial data at the regional scale. This project will improve the efficiency of conservation planning in the region by giving researchers and managers access to biophysical and socioeconomic information in spatially explicit while encouraging them to share their data to complete the gaps, therefore reducing duplicate data collection efforts and providing the most complete and most current data available.

By contributing data to the CT Atlas, NGO partners, governments and managers are helping to strengthen the effectiveness of conservation activities in the Coral Triangle through improved information flow and access to the region's best datasets.

For more information about the CT Atlas and to contribute data, contact: Annick Cros atacros@tnc.orgor ReefBase at reefbase@cgiar.org You can also participate in discussions or submit questions to the CT Atlas forum